GANTER: Sometimes, these Raptors just defy logic

GANTER: Sometimes, these Raptors just defy logic

So is it two steps forward, one step back? Or one step forward, two steps back?

The Toronto Raptors season has been anything but a straight line.

They were head and shoulders above the league to begin the year and have spent the past two months working their way back to the pack.

For every time they have played a complete stinker, like Thursday’s capitulation to the Milwaukee Bucks, you need only revert back to the last time the same two teams met three weeks earlier for an example of how good the Raptors can look and conversely how bad they can make even the team with the best record in the NBA look. And that was on Milwaukee’s court.

After a 20-4 start to the season, the Raptors have won just 17 of the next 29.

For whatever reason, this highly-respected and well-thought-of-throughout-the-league Raptors squad just seems to turn it all off sometimes. Thursday’s loss is the lastest example and it’s tough to explain.

The Raptors had two consecutive days of practice in their own gym, an unheard-of luxury in this NBA environment where rest trumps practice just about every time there is an opiton or the smallest hint of a condensed schedule.

They had not played in four days, had not been on a plane for three and yet instead of looking rested and regrouped they looked lifeless and disorganized most of the night.

Kawhi Leonard, who was as guilty as anyone of an uneven and out-of-character night, seemed to suggest that the three days off between game days was actually a reason for the general malaise that seemed to have taken over the team.

Frankly, that doesn’t pass the logic test.

Pascal Siakam said there was just a lack of energy that seemed to take over the bulk of the team for the bulk of the night.

As the man who provides that boost and that energy on a nightly basis, Siakam tried to take the blame for it, but on a night when he put up 28 points – two shy of his career-high and almost single-handedly brought the team back from a 24-point deficit against a top-notch club – that sentiment rang hollow.

Kyle Lowry, like Leonard, had one of those nights he would sooner put in his rearview mirror and forget ever happened. Even with the taste of that egg his team had just laid still fresh in his mouth, Lowry chose to paint things in a positive light.

“We’re in February,” Lowry pointed out to those unaware the calendar was turning. “We’re starting to get to that point where we need to be. We know exactly what we’re doing. We’re adding things now. We’ve got to get better, quicker. We don’t have the whole year. We’ve got a couple months. We’ve got to make sure that we kind of know exactly what we want to do and continue to work on that. Every chance we have to practise and watch film, it’s a positive.”

Yes, there’s a sense of urgency buried in that meandering statement, but it’s lost when he suggests the team knows exactly what they are doing.

How can a team know exactly what it is doing and come out in a regular-season game that actually meant something and perform with such lacklustre apathy?

By losing that game the Raptors conceded advantages to Milwaukee that could prove very costly down the road. The Bucks, again by virtue of that win, now own the tiebreaker should the two teams wind up tied at the end of the year. That means home court would go to the Bucks.

Yes, it was one loss, but it was a loss that came with a heavier cost than just any other regular-season loss.

Having pointed all that out, no one, certainly not in this space, believes all is lost for Nick Nurse’s Raptors.

The Raptors are an elite team filled with elite talent. The East right now seems to be chasing the Bucks for the time being, but the Bucks are not the Cleveland Cavaliers of years past. Giannis Antetokounmpo, as good as he is, does not cast that same kind of shadow that LeBron James did in years past.

With Siakam like he was Thursday, Kawhi Leonard at his best, which he wasn’t Thursday, and OG Anunoby at a consierably higher level than he was in that loss, not to mention a fully healthy Danny Green, the Raptors have a number of defensive options and answers to throw the Greek Freak’s way come playoff time.

The Bucks won the season series 3-1 over Toronto but there’s been nothing to suggest that come playoff time they are going to have some LeBron-like hold over this Raptors team. It just doesn’t have the same feel.

But it would be nice to see the Raptors start to assert themselves on a more consistent basis.

That would be comforting to a fanbase that could use some real confidence as the season heads into its final third of the schedule.

SIAKAM DENIED

The door slammed shut on Pascal Siakam’s all-star hopes for this season on Friday.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver wasted no time in announcing Victor Oladipo’s injury replacement for the Feb. 17 game – and it won’t be Toronto’s energy bunny.

Instead, Silver gave the nod to a deserving Brooklyn Nets guard, D’Angelo Russell.

Russell is the first Nets All-Star since Joe Johnson represented the team in 2013-14.

Like Siakam, Russell is putting up career numbers across the board this season.

In his fourth season, the 6-foot-5 guard is averaging career-highs of 19.6 points and 6.4 assists to go with 3.8 rebounds and 1.17 steals in 52 games. He is shooting career-highs of 43.8% from the field, 37.4% from three-point range. Russell has made a career-high 140 three-pointers, the third-highest total among Eastern Conference players.

Siakam, who is in his third year in the NBA, is averaging a career best 15.4 points per game, 2.9 assists and 6.9 rebounds. He’s also shooting a career best 56.2% from the field and 33.3% from behind the arc.

As per league rules, when a player is selected to the All-Star Game and unable to play due to injury, the commission chooses his replacement.

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